Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.

Meta

Blog Stats

The Venezuelan Constitution: That little useless blue book

September 13, 2010

While I did not vote for the Venezuelan Constitution approved in 2000, it is our only Constitution and it establishes the framework for how our country works. Unfortunately, Hugo Chavez, who once would show the blue book at every chance, now ignores its contents day after day and the blue book is not even worth the paper it is written on: It gets trampled on daily.

This week, it got trampled a few times. The first time quite directly, when the Head of the CNE, the Electoral Board, Tibisay Lucena, announced that Government officials were not banned from campaigning, despite Article 145 of the Constitution which states that:

“Government officials are at the service of the State and not of any partiality”

which was expanded explicitly by the regulations issued this May by the same Electoral Board, forbidding Government officials from participating in political and campaign activities.

But Hugo Chavez has become the LAW in Venezuela, above the little blue book, so he needed to campaign and the four Chavista ladies at the CNE complied with his whims. No questions asked.

The second violation, is not a direct violation of the Constitution, but of the Constitution of the State of Guarico, which is similar to that of many States of Venezuela in that who succeeds the absolute absence of a Governor depends on when the absence takes place. In the case of William Lara, whose death will not be the subject of a post, his absence occurs within the first two years of his term. Then, the Secretary General of the State will become Governor and an election will take place within 30 days.

Well, last night, there was a “political decision” by Chavez’ PSUV party that the temporary Governor will be the President of the Legislative Assembly, Gustavo Mendez, because the Secretary General “declined” the position.

Well, the Secretary General may “decline”, but to do so he has to resign and the only possible way for Mr. Mendez to occupy the position would be for him to resign his own and become Secretary General. That is what laws are for and why they exist.

This is becoming the rule in Venezuela, neither the Government nor the Supreme Court follow the Constitution approved by Chavismo with a 96% majority of the Constituent assembly of 1999.

Of course, the biggest proof of this is my previous post, the Venezuelan Constitution says that (Art. 10) the Electoral Power has to guarantee the principle of proportional representation and with the gerrymandering and redistricting a 50/50 split in the votes would lead to Chavismo obtaining 60% of the Deputies in the Assembly. The Supreme Court rejected any requests to have this changed.

Maybe they don’t understand what proportional means. More likely, they have no clue about the meaning of what a Constitution is and should be.

(Note: On William Lara’s death, I will only say that I am concerned about the lack of discussion of why it happened. Traffic deaths have increased dramatically over the last few years due to speeding, lack of enforcement and bad roads. Nobody seems to be responsible for any of these issues)

GWEN, I noticed on Google Earth that they have an elevation reading wherever you move the cursor. You have got to figure that the US Department of Defense has mapped the entire surface of the Earth with radar from space. You try to dig a big tunnel and move the dirt to the surface, and it will be detected as a change in the elevation map. They can probably measure how much dirt was moved.
In Louisiana, after Katrina, they created an elevation map that you can search by the square meter. I can actually see the difference in elevation between my back yard and my neighbors. And that is public information. Who knows what the government has. I have seen radar images that look like photographs. If NASA & the ESA can land a probe on Titan, who knows what they can detect on Earth.
Should Hugo try to build a bomb, the US will bomb any facilities they can locate. The nice guy Uncle Sam, to the extent that he ever existed, died on September 11, 2001. It is kill or be killed, now. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Any really dangerous threat will be dealt with. And the all voluntary military is kick ass. Read how the US troops took on the meth & coke drugged religious fanatics from all over the Muslim world in the second battle of Falluajh. Fighting like that, half way around the globe, is amazing to me. I would still be hiding in a hole, thinking about the best way to advance.
Last year I was looking at the Holy City of Qom, in Iran using G.E. While roaming around, I noticed excavations. I figured that they were hiding something, and sure enough, a few months later they announced the construction of a new nuclear site in the area.
If I had to bet on the first nuclear war, I would bet India and Pakistan, by accident. After people see the results of that on cable TV & the Internet, the world might decide to get rid of the nukes. It all makes me glad that I’m living in a small town, with the prevailing winds off the nearby Gulf of Mexico. Unless Putin pushes the button, I’ll be fine. And I will bet money that he is having far too much fun with the ladies to do that. Mao sure did.

Bill, I agree with you here. Uranium ore can be extracted different ways most of which can be detected. There are they can tunnel into undetected but the subsequent transfer would be spotted. Regarding the flights, the alarms went off the day they started. I agree that money talks and you have to wonder if and when North Korea’s price will be met. Do I believe Chavez wants the bomb? I think he’s in that camp.

Roberto N. I can’t remember if the report was on TV or the net. CNN has more than one channel for the USA and international viewers. I leave my TV on 24 hours a day, but it is usually on CNBC or CNBC World. I think the report was on CNN TV, here in the USA. I watch so many videos on the computer, with the TV also on, that they all run together in my head , after a while. All I can remember is some reporter interviewing a terrorist expert, and him saying that the US Government has been watching the flights for some time. The reporter then tried to book a seat on the flight, and was told that he couldn’t do so. The plane had big orange lettering on it. It looked like one of the long range 4 engine airbus planes. The report said that every week it flies from Iran to Syria, and then on to Venezuela. When it lands, the passengers get special treatment. They depart the aircraft in a special area. The plane then flies non-stop back to Iran. It probably contains members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. They are probably training Hugo’s folks in bomb making and weapons use. Missile parts from North Korea or Iran are also a possibility. They are hiding something, if normal folks can’t get on the flight.
As I recall, no mention was made of nuclear technology transfer, except for the mention of the Israeli bombing of the Syrian reactor.
It would be difficult to enrich uranium in Venezuela without the US discovering the process, because the CIA has substantial assets inside Venezuela. Money talks. Assembling a bomb would be a lot easier.
I sure hope that any country that has any part in providing a terrorist group with a bomb that goes off inside the USA, realizes that they will cease to exist in the US nuclear response. The USA will figure that there may be more bombs where that one came from, and that the ONLY way to guarantee that another attack won’t originate from there, is to completely obliterate the place. Kill everyone and melt everything. Teach the world not to do it again. Like Germany and Japan. It’s not right, but that will be the reaction. Any nuclear bomb exploding inside the USA could easily cause a general nuclear war, which would destroy most of humanity. Just the loss of US food exports would starve millions of people all over the globe, even if no other country was damaged.
That is why all nuclear weapons must be banned with any country not agreeing to unlimited, unannounced inspections by an international body, being cut off from all trade, travel, finance and communication. Hey, I can dream.

Bill, the only proliferation scenario I see possible is transferring the weapon like on the flight you mention. That is far fetched future scenario but one that is realistically possible. Forget the homegrown approach. Brasil and Argie will not follow except for Brasilian nuclear powered subs using French tecnology.

Chavez this, Chavez that, Chavez here and Chavez there. Everyday more Chavez BS. There is no end to the nonsense. The list is endless and will continue. WHEN WILL I SEE VENEZUELAN CAJONES! There are exciting ways to end the whole idiotic drama. They say Venezuelans are tough, let’s see if that’s true.

I just watched a video on CNN. It appears that Hugo is flying in terrorists or weapons from Iran & Syria on a weekly basis. I wonder which one of Venezuela’s neighbors he will attack first, or is he just perfecting his police state?
Building a nuclear bomb, using uranium enrichment is also a possibility. Since Iran has missile technology, that will probably make Brazil eventually restart their nuclear bomb program. Argentina could be next. Both countries can easily do so, and have a working bomb within a few years. South America will become as dangerous a place to live as the rest of the world, even if you keep your mouth shut about politics. That will be sad. Wouldn’t it be strange if, after the USA and the USSR nearly nuked each other twice, and after India & Pakistan were only prevented from going to war by the nearly continuous presence in India of the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and the UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, a while back, the first nuclear war ended up happening in South America! Hopefully not, and the jets aren’t full of centrifuges.

“But people are so broke they’re drinking the truly grievous shite like Dona Barbara and the Cacique, good for a two day raton.”
What are they to drink? Venezuelan whiskey?

Nobody should be drinking any alcohol well before and during driving, ever.
If they do, they should be put to jail. I know, I know: Venezuelans don’t care.
Anyway: Venezuelan roads may be lethal now, but they were extremely lethal already for decades now.
Many years ago we already had one of the highest rate of lethal accidents on the road.
Venezuelans, the vast majority of them, drive like drunk autistic people.

No governor travels with just one body guard and a peanut camera crew. But there’s no way to know the truth on this one because there is no functioning police force to investigate, nor a reliable means of the truth ever getting reported. So there’s literally “no telling,” and every answer is almost certain to be bollocks.

What Liz points out is telling. We all know that lack of Maintenance has tanked most of our infrastructure, and that only a few propitious rain showers diverted a national melt down per the Guri fandango. (BTW, what the hell is going on with those downed turbinos?). But now many streets and highways are disastrous, with giant huecos and basura everywhere and so on. Have you tried driving to the Gran Sabana lately? Dude, it’s like a some madcap venture in Mogadishu. And virtually everyone on the road is a meter into the old roncito pues. But people are so broke they’re drinking the truly grievous shite like Dona Barbara and the Cacique, good for a two day raton.

I’m waiting for Chavez to try and nationalize Sambil in Margarita, just for good measure.

Bruni:I am also surprised that the driver could get out walking, without any sign of being in an accident, whereas the governor was drowned.

Which reminds me of Chappaquiddick in 1969, where the driver, most likely drunk, drove off a bridge without a guardrail into a pond. The driver got out, but the passenger drowned. Here the comparison between Chappaquiddick and Venezuela stops.

In Venezuela, the dead passenger was a big politico. In the Chappaquiddick incident, the driver was a big politico: Ted Kennedy and the dead passenger a young political assistant, Mary Joe Kopechne. In Venezuela, the driver was an assistant.

Let us say that in any normal country there should be an inquire to understand exactly how this happened. In Vzla nobody investigates, not even the journalists!
It would appear that another comparison is that in both incidents, there appears to be an incomplete investigation.

When a public official escapes his entourage, it is often simply because he is meeting his mistress. It should be investigated, but it doesn’t necessarily signify that there was anything untoward occurring.

To protect important political figures at least two people are assigned: the driver and a bodyguard. I am quite surprised that in this episode there was just a driver and the governor, no bodyguard, let alone the absence of a complete escort of official cars.

I am also surprised that the driver could get out walking, without any sign of being in an accident, whereas the governor was drowned.

Let us say that in any normal country there should be an inquire to understand exactly how this happened. In Vzla nobody investigates, not even the journalists!

Liz:
The other thing no one mentions is that at first there were reports that a journalist from VTV and her camera operator were also in that vehicle. Since then I have not seen anything about her, or the camera operator either.

I know that stretch of road quite well. They must have been in a hurry to have slid and left the roadway, regardless of potholes, etc.

Kepler:

Some governors swear they have more pull than Putin, and act accordingly.

Miguel,
the other thing nobody talks about is why on earth was the governor traveling without an entourage of people! they usually have so many underlings and motorcycle bodyguards… Very strange if you ask me.

Anyhow, the guy just found death as any other Venezuelan who dares to use our roads and highways. I just recently traveled to Falcon and it was a nightmare of potholes, detours and rubbish.

Considering that chavez began disrespecting the constitution with a coup, and, legally, was never sworn in after his first election, nor reinstated after the non coup against him, we’d have to bring up the legal concept of “fruits from a rotten tree” when deciding about whether Venezuela is a democracy with rule of law, or not.